⸻ ❛𝐖𝐑𝐀𝐏 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐈 𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐎𝐒!❜
Rory Hargrove is obsessed to uncover the truth behind Barbara Holland's disappearance, while facing her brother's enemy and buried secrets from...
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GROANING IN PAIN, SHE FELT THE URGE TO STAND UP, one hand pressed against her aching back. She blinked several times, trying to make sense of the strange scene around her.
If there had been any shred of peace left in her heart, confusion had snuffed it out completely when that sound reverberated through her very bones.
"Do you remember what you did, Aurora?"
The deep, rasping voice of Vecna rose from the rotting depths, echoing across every corner of the place where she now stood. A vast building, several stories high, a towering ceiling—yet drenched in darkness.
She didn't dare answer. She held herself still, waiting.
"When I kill someone, I never forget."
Rory's dazed mind struggled to grasp the weight of his words. She had never killed anyone—so he couldn't mean her, could he? Still, as her eyes darted around, fear sharpened her senses, even as the world seemed to move in slow motion, drugged and unreal.
Translucent particles swirled and drifted before her face. Narrowing her eyes, Aurora tried to make out where she was—the thick, slimy vines, stained with blood, crawled across the walls, seeping into every surface as if they belonged to the very architecture.
And she remembered that shape. That fountain, now bone-dry. That familiar design.
The Starcourt Mall. Abandoned, corrupted, its reflection in the Upside Down—the place she longed to escape, but which clung to her like a shadow.
Or worse... like a curse.
Visions struck her—the image of her brother, lying sprawled before her, his stomach pierced, blood dried across his white shirt, his face pale and lifeless.
She couldn't bring herself closer. She couldn't let that image burn into her memory. Her trembling hands forced her backward step by step.
"No... no..." The words tumbled from her lips in broken whispers, her desperate attempt to convince herself it was nothing more than a nightmare—a cruel trick from Vecna meant to break her. "I didn't kill him. I tried... I tried to save him."
But the red stain spreading around her brother's body grew and grew, until it poured like a fountain, blood gushing as though it were water under terrible pressure—until the sticky flood reached her feet.
Rory had to get out. She couldn't endure the sight for another second. Retreating from the advancing pool, her frantic eyes searched for escape. The instant her gaze locked on the door, she forced her muscles into motion, bolting toward it.
